Biology(Page 12)

A guide to life, on Earth and beyond, including the top news about plants, animals, and physiology.

Latest in Biology

An orange California newt sits on a rock. The amphibians are endemic to California.

Female Taricha newts are more poisonous than males

By Laura Baisas

A newborn rhino calf stands under his mother. He is black and does not have his signature horns in yet.

A critically endangered Sumatran rhino named Delilah welcomes first calf

By Laura Baisas

Six African penguins standing on a rock. They have white plumage with black dots arranged in individual patterns on their chests.

African penguins may tell each other apart by the spots in their plumage

By Laura Baisas

An artist's rendering of a trilobite based on preserved soft body parts. The animal has two antennae protruding from its head and is oval-shaped.

10 new species of trilobite fossil rise from volcanic ash

By Laura Baisas

A mature Megasyllis nipponica with a developing female stolon.

Why these sea worms detach their butts to reproduce

By Laura Baisas

An aquatic nematode living in pond water among cyanobacteria. The small worms are sometimes trapped and eaten by carnivorous fungi.

These tiny worms are no match for carnivorous fungi

By Laura Baisas

A serotine bat with its mouth open, showing teeth. Serotine bats are widely spread throughout Europe and Asia and have a 15 inch wingspan.

Scientists are confounded by the sex lives of serontine bats

By Laura Baisas

Two wild bonobos sit in a tree. Researchers examined pro-social behaviors of the smaller species of great ape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wild bonobos show surprising signs of cooperation between groups

By Laura Baisas

A bioluminescent sea cucumber called Scotoplanes or the “sea pig.”

Surprise! These sea cucumbers glow

By Laura Baisas

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, photographed by a camera trap.

Elusive egg-laying mammal caught on camera for the first time

By Laura Baisas

A lateral view of Loncovilius carlsbergi. It is a six-limbed beetle less than an inch long, with two antennae protruding from its head.

These newfound beetles have male genitals shaped like a bottle opener

By Laura Baisas

Beyond the mitochrondrion: How did our cells get their other complex parts?

Beyond the mitochrondrion: How did our cells get their other complex parts?

By Viviane Callier / Knowable Magazine

An Anna’s hummingbird with bright pink plumage flies near some leafy green trees.

Hummingbirds have two creative strategies for flying through tight spaces

By Laura Baisas

A colorized image of the newly discovered satellite virus latched onto its helper virus. The helper virus is larger and shown in a dark blue, while the satellite virus is smaller and purple. It is attached at the "neck" of the helper virus.

Virus observed sucking on another virus’ ‘neck’ for the first time

By Laura Baisas

Illustration in green, yellow, orange, and purple of big sauropod dinosaurs lifting weights in front of a prehistoric landscape

The mystery of why some dinosaurs got so enormous

A side view of a great white shark. Regional endothermy in fish has been seen in apex predators like the great white sharks or giant tuna.

Megalodon’s warm-blooded relatives are still circling the oceans today

By Laura Baisas

A louse on human hair under a microscope. Humans and lice have coevolved for thousands of years. The oldest human louse known to scientists is a 10,000 year-old specimen from Brazil.

What head lice can tell us about human migration

By Laura Baisas

A baby loggerhead turtle pokes out of a shell on the sand. Its head and front flippers are out of the shell, with the lower half remaining inside.

Endangered sea turtles build hundreds of nests on the Outer Banks

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Ekgmowechashala, the last primate to inhabit North America before humans. The animal has a white furry face, with a pink nose, and large dark eyes like a lemur. It is sitting in a leafy tree.

North America was once home to some unusual wild monkeys

By Laura Baisas

A white rat pops its head out of a black box. Like in humans, the rat’s hippocampus is the part of the brain where mental maps of the world are stored.

Rats may have imaginations

By Laura Baisas

Photograph of the skeletal mount of an Allosaurus specimen (AMNH 5753), from William Diller Matthew's 1915 book “Dinosaurs.”

When a Jurassic giant died, predatory dinos probably feasted on the carcass

By Laura Baisas

An orange starfish, or sea star, on a black backgorund. The unusual five-axis symmetry of sea stars has long confounded our understanding of animal evolution.

The sea star’s whole body is a head

By Laura Baisas

Several blooming yellow sunflowers under a blue sky with white clouds.

We still don’t fully know how sunflowers turn toward the sun

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of an early lamprey's teeth and sucker. The Jurassic lampreys Yanliaomyzon had a feeding apparatus that surprisingly resembles that of the pouched lampreys. It foreshadows the ancestral flesh-eating habit of present day. lampreys.

Giant prehistoric lamprey likely sucked blood—and ate flesh

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of two Jormungandr walhallaensis mosasaurs fighting. The extinct creatrue is a long sea serpent with flippers, a shark-like tail, and narrow jaws. One is seen biting the other in the next, while pterosaurs fly above it.

Newfound mosasaur was like a giant Komodo dragon with flippers

By Laura Baisas

The Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis) aka the Halloween beetle looks very similar to more common ladybugs, but they are generally bigger and with more spots. The bug is sitting on a yellow flower.

Why ladybugs and ‘Halloween beetles’ are everywhere right now

By Laura Baisas

A clock-like brain indicates its role in sleep in an illustration.

Your brain’s ‘master switchboard’ is an underappreciated marvel

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Ma Rainey, a post-reproductive female of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and her adult son Wes. The two are sitting among trees in a forest.

Wild chimpanzees show signs of potential menopause—a rarity in the animal kingdom

By Laura Baisas

A fuzzy yellow and black bumblebee foraging on a green plant.

Bumblebees carbo-load on the fly

By Laura Baisas

A life-sized reconstruction of the head and jaws of the oldest megapredatory pliosaur called Lorrainosaurus. The reptile is long and torpedo shaped, with closed jaws and sharp exposed teeth.

This Jurassic-era ‘sea murderer’ was among the first of its kind

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of a newly discovered shark species called Strigilodus tollesonae. The shark looks somewhat like a stingray, with outstretched wings, fan-like top fins, and a long tail with black spots.

Prehistoric shark called Kentucky home 337 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

A group of worker bees surround the queen bee on a honeycomb. All worker honeybees are female and they can go to extreme lengths to serve their queen even shedding their own ovaries.

Female honeybees may pass down ‘altruistic’ genes

By Laura Baisas

A fluorescent microscopic image, magnified 20 times, of a rodent nerve.

Unraveled nerves and mesmerizing caffeine crystals: 10 sensational glimpses of the microscopic realm

By Popular Science Team

Three stage of digital reconstruction. From left, the Pierolapithecus cranium shortly after discovery, after initial preparation, and after virtual reconstruction.

12-million-year-old ape skull bares its fangs in virtual reconstruction

By Laura Baisas

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem

By Syris Valentine/Hakai Magazine

Climate change could help fungal diseases thrive

Climate change could help fungal diseases thrive

By Shreya Dasgupta/Knowable Magazine

AI-designed multi-legged robots on table

AI design for a ‘walking’ robot is a squishy purple glob

The cave lion remains from Siegsdorf, Germany are displayed alongside a reproduction of a wooden spear similar to those used by Neanderthals.

Neanderthals may have hunted mighty cave lions

By Laura Baisas

A pinkish human brain against a black background.

New human brain atlas is the most detailed one we’ve seen yet

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Two frogs mating in a body of water.

Female frogs appear to play dead to avoid mating

By Laura Baisas

Patient wearing a highly integrated bionic hand in between many others

Titanium-fused bone tissue connects this bionic hand directly to a patient’s nerves

Grazer looking chunky and getting ready for winter on September 14, 2023. The bear is in the river intensely staring for salmon.

Fierce mama Grazer takes 2023’s Fat Bear Week crown

By Laura Baisas

Human hand bones during an archaeological dig.

Sensitive to pain? It could be your Neanderthal gene variants.

By Laura Baisas

An underwater closeup of Cayo margarita (a new species) in the coral reef of the Florida Keys. Note the two long tentacles, used by the snail to spread the mucus net for feeding.

New neon-yellow snail from the Florida Keys gets a happy hour-ready name

By Laura Baisas

A capybara standing on a riverbank. Capybaras are semi-aquatic rodents that can weigh up to 174 pounds.

4 capybara facts you’ll love, and 1 you’d like to forget

By Laura Baisas

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

By Laura Baisas

White Sands NPS staff excavating fossilized human footprints from lakebed

Do the ancient human footprints at White Sands date back to the last ice age?

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Sweat sensor worn like a ring on finger

A new noninvasive patch could monitor a vital hormone

Electronic artificial tongue sensor

An ‘electronic tongue’ could help robots taste food like humans

Two chimpanzees share a meal. A new study found that same-sex sexual behavior helps establish and maintain positive social relationships in animals including chimpanzees, bighorn sheep, lions, and wolves.

Mammals may use same-sex sexual behavior for conflict resolution, bonding, and more

By Laura Baisas

The Morona-Santiago stubfoot toad (Atelopus halihelos) in Ecuador is listed as critically endangered.

How we can help the most endangered class of animals survive climate change

By Laura Baisas

A green monk parakeet standing in dirt. Parrots could have a unique tone of voice just like humans do.

No two parakeets sound exactly the same

By Laura Baisas

T. rex model, T. rex skull, and Triceratops skull at dinosaur display in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna

4 reasons dinosaurs never really ruled the Earth

A killer whale in the Salish Sea is observed harassing a porpoise, a behavior that has long perplexed scientists.

Why are these orcas harassing porpoises? Scientists have 3 theories.

By Laura Baisas

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

By Laura Baisas

A person receiving chest compressions.

What really happens during a near-death experience

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A volcano spews lava and ash. In roughly 250 million years, massive tectonic activity could push together all of our current landmasses into a supercontinent like Pangea and make the climate inhospitable to humans and other mammals.

A boiling hot supercontinent could kill all mammals in 250 million years

By Laura Baisas

A row of organic orange carrots with their green stems still attached on a table.

How carrots get their trademark orange color

By Laura Baisas

A hyenea shows its jaws. Giant hyenas went extinct about 500,000 years ago, but were roughly 240 pounds and skilled scavengers like their modern counterparts.

How many ancient humans does it take to fight off a giant hyena?

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Bohemolichas feeding on the seafloor, moments before it is engulfed, buried, and preserved by an underwater mud flow.

A fossilized trilobite stomach can show us clues to Cambrian cuisine

By Laura Baisas

Aerial view of a hot air balloon over Namib desert. The circular “fairy circles” are derived from any vegetation & surrounded by tall grass.

Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ may appear on three different continents

By Laura Baisas

$A close up of the black and white stripes of a zebra. The same patterns that dictate zebra stripes could also control the way sperm swim.$

The mathematical theory that connects swimming sperm, zebra stripes, and sunflower seeds

By Laura Baisas

A tarantula with a mostly black body, but bright blue legs and pincers. Chilobrachys natanicharum is the first tarantula species found in Thailand’s mangrove trees. CREDIT: Yuranan Nanthaisong/ZooKeys.

Meet the first electric blue tarantula known to science

By Laura Baisas

Rafflesia kemumu in the rainforest of Sumatra.

Earth’s stinkiest flower is threatened with extinction

By Laura Baisas